So why Gibraltar? Why was I interested in it? Honestly, not so sure. I knew of it through World War stuff and how the British had this small chunk of Spain from where they could control the Mediterranean entrance, but that was mostly it. I think after coming over to this side of the world I looked it up to see where it was, and discovered it was very close to Morocco and of course Spain was right there - from that I started scoping a 3-day weekend trip concept to visit the place. The initial goal was to spend just the 3 days - 1 day for Gibraltar, 1 day for Spain and 1 day for Morocco, since I saw there was a ferry to Morocco from Gibraltar. Which there is, but it turns out only in that direction, and only once a week. There were ferries from Algeciras in nearby Spain, or even more options from Tarifa which was further away but that started complicating things. What killed the trip concept most was the cost of flights going to and from there, accommodation costs in Gibraltar plus trying to contain the trip into a 3-day weekend which basically would prove impossible, so that's where I left it - but it was always in the back of my mind. We would have two days - enough time to look over Gibraltar, and also for a pop across the border into mainland Spain somewhere - certainly there would be no chance to visit Morocco, but if we were lucky we'd be able to see Morocco from up on top of the Gibraltar rock or from the plane.
So how did it go?
Day 1 - Gibraltar and the Rock
Day 2 - Across the Border and Back Home
In Summary
When all was said and done, we probably only had slightly less than a full day in Gibraltar - but given that its a small place, we managed to do all the key things we wanted to do there. Although there is a couple of things that would have been nice to do there, I don't feel like I've missed out for not having done them. To be frank, Gibraltar to me seems like the kind of place that you could see everything and do everything there in two days - we could easily have not gone to Algeciras on the Sunday and finished the entire place off, but I think we gained more by going into Spain than spending the rest of that time in Gibraltar. I honestly can't imagine living there either, there seems to be a distinct lack of things to do. Spain wants it back, but Britain doesn't want to relinquish it - it might not be a militarily strategic place like it once was, but if Maggie Thatcher wasn't going to give up the Falklands to the Argentines when they invaded I doubt very much Britain's going to give up Gibraltar to the Spanish. Spain's claim is a bit on the nose when you consider they have not one, but two similar territories in Morocco that they refuse to hand over to the Moroccans - although in each of these cases, the local populations want to remain a part of the countries they are currently a part of. Mind you, never say never - I might well be able to claim one day that I visited Gibraltar "When it was still British". Will there be another visit to Gibraltar? not in the forseeable future - as far as I'm concerned, I've done everything there that I wanted to do there. However Gibraltar does have a rather strategically placed airport (which incidentally is rated up there with Wellington for hairy landings - not that we encountered anything of the sort on our flights) so who knows what might happen in the course of another trip. One last lingering question though - the flit across the border into Spain counts as an International Trip, but where does Gibraltar sit? is it a Domestic trip, since its part of Britain (but not the UK, and has its own Independent Parliament system) or is it Overseas? I'm leaning towards it being Overseas, but its not quite clear cut I don't think...